Little happens in industrialised countries without the use of high-tech materials which are the building blocks of all modern technologies ranging from information, communication, health, energy to environment and transport. Through our microscopic insight into the atomistic structure of condensed matter, the development of novel materials has progressed at a breathtaking pace during the last decades.

Breakthroughs in the future development of advanced materials and novel technologies are facing key barriers in the destruction-free in-situ analysis of nanomaterials and nanomaterial systems under industrially and environmentally relevant conditions. These barriers pose critical challenges onto the European Research Infrastructure for the fine analysis of matter, i.e. the modern European Synchrotron Radiation and neutron facilities which have developed an impressive analytical potential and which are ready to offer and adjust their analytical technology to the advancement of nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The GENNESYS initiative, launched in 2003, is catalyzing this process in Europe.